Public education is one of Canada's most powerful tools for building a resilient, prosperous country. With over 90% of students in Canada attending publicly funded schools, they are an effective upstream policy solution to Canada's most challenging issues from polarization to productivity.
But because education policy is split across 13 distinct provincial/ territorial jurisdictions, navigating the system can feel overly complex and siloed. We think that in order to better support and transform the system, we have to understand how it's built.
That's why we're so excited to share with you People for Education's Canadian Education Blueprints a first-of-its-kind, interactive pan-Canadian resource designed to strip away the complexity of education policy and reveal the structures that make systemic change possible.
The core framework: 9 levers for change
While conversations about education policy often focus on change through curriculum, there are many different policy change levers that can be pulled to drive real change. The Canadian Education Blueprints provide neutral, clear, and factual descriptions of how K-12 education works across the country using nine specific policy change levers in the following categories:
- Vision & governance: Who sets the goals, who has decision-making power, and how does it get used?
- Funding & accountability: How are resources allocated and system results tracked and reported?
- Education workforce: How are educators trained, certified, and what kinds of issues are decided in collective agreements?
- The learning environment: What kind of testing and assessments programs are in place, how is curriculum developed, and how are communities engaged?
A living tool: Help us keep building!
We are incredibly grateful to the more than a dozen education organizations and policy experts from across Canada who reviewed the Blueprints. Their feedback helped to strengthen the accuracy, clarity, and framing of this resource.
We want to make this tool as robust and accurate as possible so we're looking to our community to help us keep refining and improving. As you interact with the map, please let us know if there are areas in your province/ territory or area of expertise that need improvement, clarification, or updated context. See an inaccuracy or a gap? Email us directly at info@peopleforeducation.ca so we can update it quickly.
The big picture: An Action Plan for education policy change
PFE's Canadian Education Blueprints arrive as part of our multi-year initiative, The Education Promise. The Blueprints are intended not only as a informative policy tool, but also as a foundation for future action.
Over the coming year, informed by these nine policy change levers, PFE will share a Pan-Canadian Education Action Plan. The Action Plan will deliver concrete policy recommendations aimed at multiple levels of education decision-makers, addressing each of the levers for policy change.
We're looking forward to the work ahead and in the meantime, please check out PFE's Canadian Education Blueprints!
